The shamed cop who sparked the NYPD ticket-fixing scandal tried to hire a hitman to kill a witness in the case — and planned to pay for the rub-out with his NYPD pension money, prosecutors charged Thursday.
In a wild twist to the already sweeping ticket-fixing scandal, shamed 17-year NYPD veteran Jose Ramos hatched his plot to off a critical witness against him during phone calls to his wife, Wanda Abreu, from Rikers, according to Bronx prosecutor Omer Wiczyk.
Ramos and Abreu were hauled into Bronx Supreme Court today and charged with second degree conspiracy to commit murder.
“They need him. Without him they have no case,” Ramos allegedly told his wife in phone conversations that were recorded.
Abreu even went so far as to borrow the money to pay the gunman from Ramos’ NYPD pension, Wicyzk said.
Ramos urged his wife to pay for the hit, saying, “Go ahead – do it! But do it right away.”
The only thing the ruthless couple feared, Wicyzk said, was being caught.
“Ramos and Abreu have no problems having an individual murdered –they just didn’t want to get their hands dirty,” Wicyzk said, as Ramos and his wife both pleaded not guilty in a hearing before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett.
“It was critical for them not to be involved in the murder,” Wicyzk said. “They clearly exhibited wanton disregard for the lives of others.”
The identity of Ramos’ alleged target was not disclosed.
Ramos — who is already being held in Rikers, unable to post $500,000 bail – and Abreu, the parents of two school-aged kids, both pleaded not guilty.
Abreu now joins her husband on Rikers. Barrett set Abreu’s bail at $500,000 bond or $100,000 cash.
“We were totally blindsided by these charges,” said Ramos’ lawyer, former Bronx prosecutor Dawn Florio. “We’re just in total shock that these charges were brought forth.”
Sources told The Post that the person couple Ramos and his wife wanted to kill was a confidential informant who spent time in the Bronx barbershop Ramos and his family owned.
Bronx ticket-fix investigators helped make their case against Ramos by putting an undercover cop, trained as a barber, in the family run barber shop to monitor Ramos’ activities, officials have said.
According to prosecutors, Ramos and his wife planned for the murder to take place after Ramos made bail.
The couple would then head to Texas to wait until the dirty deed was done, Wicyzk said, “thereby giving them an alibi.”
Ramos and Abreu used code words when plotting the takedown, and had five different code names for the hitman.
Abreu, who runs a daycare business out of her house, set up a meeting to pay for the hit — but got suspicious when a person showed up for payment, and didn’t fork over the dough, Wicyzk said.
Ramos was one of 16 cops arrested in Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson’s sweeping ticket-fixing case last October. His wife was charged at the time with filing a false accident report for insurance.
The case started during surveillance of Ramos, who was believed to be involved in drug running.
Additional reporting by Jamie Schram